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LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Symphony will present its Fall Concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24, at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre, with composers from the Romantic Era.
There will be music by Franz Schubert, Gioacchino Rossini, Jules Massenet and Leo Delibes, as well as a violin solo performance by symphony member Francine Passa.
Conductor/Musical Director John Parkinson opens the program with Gioacchino Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra Overture,” popularly known as “The Thieving Magpie,” an opera that is best known for its use of snare drums in the overture, opening the piece in an energetic and memorable way and evoking the image of the opera's main subject: a devilishly clever, thieving magpie.
Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas. He also wrote many other songs, including chamber music, piano pieces and sacred music.
He was very popular at a young age and set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from full-scale composition while still in his 30s, at the height of his popularity.
Next the symphony will play “Cortege De Bacchus” by Leo Delibes (1836-1891) from his “Sylvia” ballet suite. Delibes is best known for his operas/operettas and ballets and was the first to craft a full-length ballet score. He composed operas and vaudevilles for several years before collaborating with Ludwig (Leon) Minkus on his first ballet composition, “La Source,” achieving public recognition for this in 1866.
His later works “Coppelia” and “Sylvia” were considered key works in the development of modern ballet, in which the music had much greater importance than it had previously. His work was admired by “Swan Lake” composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; others, like American author Carl Van Vechten, saw Delibes’ contribution to ballet music as “revolutionary.”
“Overture in C Minor for String Quintet” by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) is the next selection. Composed in 1811 when he was 14, it was Schubert’s earliest chamber work.
The final selection in the first half of the program is a solo performance by violinist/symphony member Francine Passa, accompanied by the orchestra. She will play the beautiful and familiar “Meditation” from the opera, “Thais,” by Jules Massenet (1842-1912).
A French composer of the Romantic Era, Massenet composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, piano pieces, songs and other incidental music, but quickly became best known for his operas, writing more than 30 of them. Massenet had a good sense of the theater and of what would succeed with the Parisian public, and produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Following intermission, the orchestra plays Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished," a composition he started in 1822 but left with only two movements — though he lived for another six years.
This symphony is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony due to having many of the characteristics of Romantic era music. These include its orchestration and specific instrumental choices that are predictive of the later Romantic movement.
Music aficionados say Schubert's music neatly bridges the Classical and Romantic periods through its use of “lovely melodies, inventive scoring, and nature imagery, wedded to traditional classical forms while at the same time expanding them.”
Conductor Parkinson finishes the program with another Schubert piece: Overture in the Italian Style No. 2 in C Major, D. 591. In 1817, in response to the Italian craze sweeping Vienna, the 20-yr old Schubert wrote two “Overtures in the Italian Style.”
The second of these, “D. 591” is thought to best capture the essence of Gioacchino Rossini, who was hugely popular at the time.
Franz Schubert died at age 31, but left behind a vast collection of compositions, including more than 600 vocal works, seven complete symphonies, operas, and a large body of piano and chamber music.
While Schubert did not receive much public recognition while he was alive, today he is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of Western Classical music.
His music has appeared in several films, including Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” (1975), Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), and Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011). His music continues to be widely performed.
Tickets for the 2 p.m. Fall Concert are $25 for general seating or $30 for premium seating and may be purchased on the Soper Reese website: https://www.soperreesetheatre.com.
LCSA members receive a $5 discount. Tickets are also available at the Soper Reese box office at 275 S. Main Street on the day of the concert. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the show when buying tickets at the door.
The 11 a.m. dress rehearsal performance is just $5 for adults and free for those under the age of 18. Due to the popularity of this discounted performance, please arrive early to ensure a seat.
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- Written by: Debra Fredrickson
Christmas lights are mostly not up yet, and still holiday programming is already available before anyone has had the chance to carve up a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
You can count on the Hallmark Channel to fill their schedule with a surfeit of Christmas movies. It happens every year, and this one is no exception.
Hallmark didn’t even wait for Halloween before launching “Scouting for Christmas,” in which Tamera Mowry-Housley’s Angela is a busy realtor since her amicable divorce a couple of years ago to Dakota (James Paladino), a paleontologist whose adventures kept him anywhere but home.
Now, she is a devoted, if often harried, single mom to smart and loving 10-year-old girl Brooklyn (Audrey Wise Alvarez). Angela’s busy schedule makes it hard for her to find time for much of anything, or anyone else.
Angela can barely get Brooklyn to her scout meetings on time, much to the disapproval of other mothers. Brooklyn gets the idea to have William (Carlo Marks), the owner of her favorite bakery, cater her scout troop’s annual holiday event, and asks Angela to work on pitching the idea to the other moms.
Despite sensing that her daughter might be trying to play cupid, Angela agrees to help and finds herself enjoying time with William, but is reluctant to open her heart and life to someone new.
When Dakota enters the picture again, after missing his ex-wife, Angela must decide what is best for her daughter and best for her heart. “Scouting for Christmas” presents a holiday dilemma.
Oddly enough, Hallmark’s all-new, six-episode holiday series “Mistletoe Murders,” was launched on Halloween, in what can be some sort of counter-programming on the eve of an ancient Celtic festival when the souls of the dead returned to their homes.
Sarah Drew headlines as Emily Lane, a small-town shop owner with a secret. The series also stars Peter Mooney as local detective Sam Wilner and newcomer Sierra Marilyn Riley as his teenaged daughter Violet.
“Mistletoe Murders” follows Emily, the outwardly friendly proprietor of a charming year-round Christmas-themed store, Under the Mistletoe. However, her inner voice reveals a sardonic sense of humor, cunning intellect, and keen eye for details most people would miss because she has a big secret.
Residing in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove, Emily finds herself compelled to investigate a crime when her friend is accused of murder. Emily had tried to fit in without letting anyone get too close, but the murder case changes everything.
And when she begins her sleuthing, Detective Wilmer, a smart local cop, with a crush on Emily that is not completely unrequited, begins to wonder if there’s more to Emily than meets the eye.
Of course, it’s only a matter of time before Emily’s secret past catches up with her. Other than the fact that Emily runs a holiday-themed gift, “Mistletoe Murders” makes for an interesting choice for a Christmas-related program.
A sequel to Hallmark’s “Three Wise Men and a Baby” returns in a story that begins five years later with the Brenner brothers preparing for another memorable Christmas in “Three Wiser Men and a Boy.”
In a crazy turn of events, the director of Luke’s (Andrew Walker) son Thomas’ (Miles Marthaller) school holiday musical steps down. Luke is desperate to make his son’s stage dreams come true.
Luke enlists the help of his brothers Taylor (Tyler Hynes) and Stephan (Paul Campbell). Meanwhile, the trio navigates meeting their mom Barbara’s (Margaret Colin) new boyfriend.
The brothers grapple with their own feelings about this relationship. In true Brenner brother fashion, they are all in for a Christmas they will never forget. Maybe they will end up being wiser men.
Earlier in the year, Great American Family announced that Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”) and Oliver Rice (“Firefly Lane”) were set to star in “A Royal Christmas Ball,” which was acknowledged as a working title.
With a premiere date of this television film set for Friday, November 29th, the title is now “A Cinderella Christmas Ball.” This change may be owing to the fact that the working title was taken for a TV movie seven years ago.
McKellar’s Chelsea Jones is a dance instructor and studio owner in Chicago who inspires kids to find themselves through dance. Just before Christmas, Chelsea discovers a photo she’s never seen before.
Chelsea thinks the young woman is her birth mother who passed away when she was only five years old. The woman is in a wedding dress tugging on the hand of a man wearing a wedding ring, but all that is all than can be seen of the man Chelsea believes may be her father.
The photo’s handwritten inscription reads, “Our place, Havenshire, December 23, 1984.” With only the internet, a plane ticket, and lifelong determination to go on, Chelsea now has four days in Havenshire to solve the mystery of her birth family.
Along the way, she’ll sneak into a castle, teach stubborn Prince Phillip (Oliver Rice) how to dance, and be in just the right place on Christmas Eve when the bells toll.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
You can count on the Hallmark Channel to fill their schedule with a surfeit of Christmas movies. It happens every year, and this one is no exception.
Hallmark didn’t even wait for Halloween before launching “Scouting for Christmas,” in which Tamera Mowry-Housley’s Angela is a busy realtor since her amicable divorce a couple of years ago to Dakota (James Paladino), a paleontologist whose adventures kept him anywhere but home.
Now, she is a devoted, if often harried, single mom to smart and loving 10-year-old girl Brooklyn (Audrey Wise Alvarez). Angela’s busy schedule makes it hard for her to find time for much of anything, or anyone else.
Angela can barely get Brooklyn to her scout meetings on time, much to the disapproval of other mothers. Brooklyn gets the idea to have William (Carlo Marks), the owner of her favorite bakery, cater her scout troop’s annual holiday event, and asks Angela to work on pitching the idea to the other moms.
Despite sensing that her daughter might be trying to play cupid, Angela agrees to help and finds herself enjoying time with William, but is reluctant to open her heart and life to someone new.
When Dakota enters the picture again, after missing his ex-wife, Angela must decide what is best for her daughter and best for her heart. “Scouting for Christmas” presents a holiday dilemma.
Oddly enough, Hallmark’s all-new, six-episode holiday series “Mistletoe Murders,” was launched on Halloween, in what can be some sort of counter-programming on the eve of an ancient Celtic festival when the souls of the dead returned to their homes.
Sarah Drew headlines as Emily Lane, a small-town shop owner with a secret. The series also stars Peter Mooney as local detective Sam Wilner and newcomer Sierra Marilyn Riley as his teenaged daughter Violet.
“Mistletoe Murders” follows Emily, the outwardly friendly proprietor of a charming year-round Christmas-themed store, Under the Mistletoe. However, her inner voice reveals a sardonic sense of humor, cunning intellect, and keen eye for details most people would miss because she has a big secret.
Residing in the quaint tourist town of Fletcher’s Grove, Emily finds herself compelled to investigate a crime when her friend is accused of murder. Emily had tried to fit in without letting anyone get too close, but the murder case changes everything.
And when she begins her sleuthing, Detective Wilmer, a smart local cop, with a crush on Emily that is not completely unrequited, begins to wonder if there’s more to Emily than meets the eye.
Of course, it’s only a matter of time before Emily’s secret past catches up with her. Other than the fact that Emily runs a holiday-themed gift, “Mistletoe Murders” makes for an interesting choice for a Christmas-related program.
A sequel to Hallmark’s “Three Wise Men and a Baby” returns in a story that begins five years later with the Brenner brothers preparing for another memorable Christmas in “Three Wiser Men and a Boy.”
In a crazy turn of events, the director of Luke’s (Andrew Walker) son Thomas’ (Miles Marthaller) school holiday musical steps down. Luke is desperate to make his son’s stage dreams come true.
Luke enlists the help of his brothers Taylor (Tyler Hynes) and Stephan (Paul Campbell). Meanwhile, the trio navigates meeting their mom Barbara’s (Margaret Colin) new boyfriend.
The brothers grapple with their own feelings about this relationship. In true Brenner brother fashion, they are all in for a Christmas they will never forget. Maybe they will end up being wiser men.
Earlier in the year, Great American Family announced that Danica McKellar (“The Wonder Years”) and Oliver Rice (“Firefly Lane”) were set to star in “A Royal Christmas Ball,” which was acknowledged as a working title.
With a premiere date of this television film set for Friday, November 29th, the title is now “A Cinderella Christmas Ball.” This change may be owing to the fact that the working title was taken for a TV movie seven years ago.
McKellar’s Chelsea Jones is a dance instructor and studio owner in Chicago who inspires kids to find themselves through dance. Just before Christmas, Chelsea discovers a photo she’s never seen before.
Chelsea thinks the young woman is her birth mother who passed away when she was only five years old. The woman is in a wedding dress tugging on the hand of a man wearing a wedding ring, but all that is all than can be seen of the man Chelsea believes may be her father.
The photo’s handwritten inscription reads, “Our place, Havenshire, December 23, 1984.” With only the internet, a plane ticket, and lifelong determination to go on, Chelsea now has four days in Havenshire to solve the mystery of her birth family.
Along the way, she’ll sneak into a castle, teach stubborn Prince Phillip (Oliver Rice) how to dance, and be in just the right place on Christmas Eve when the bells toll.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
- Details
- Written by: Tim Riley
